Internet users’ utopian/dystopian imaginaries of society in the digital age: Theorizing critical digital literacy and civic engagement

Gianfranco Polizzi

doi:10.1177/14614448211018609

Gianfranco Polizzi

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211018609

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Abstract

This article proposes a theoretical framework for how critical digital literacy, conceptualized as incorporating Internet users’ utopian/dystopian imaginaries of society in the digital age, facilitates civic engagement. To do so, after reviewing media literacy research, it draws on utopian studies and political theory to frame utopian thinking as relying dialectically on utopianism and dystopianism. Conceptualizing critical digital literacy as incorporating utopianism/dystopianism prescribes that constructing and deploying an understanding of the Internet’s civic potentials and limitations is crucial to pursuing civic opportunities. The framework proposed, which has implications for media literacy research and practice, allows us to (1) disentangle users’ imaginaries of civic life from their imaginaries of the Internet, (2) resist the collapse of critical digital literacy into civic engagement that is understood as inherently progressive, and (3) problematize polarizing conclusions about users’ interpretations of the Internet as either crucial or detrimental to their online engagement.

Highlights

Media literacy, understood as the ability to access, evaluate and produce media content, is crucial to a well-informed citizenry’s participation in society
To overcome these limitations and facilitate richer analysis of whether and how critical digital literacy contributes to civic engagement, this article draws on utopian studies and political theory to offer a novel conceptualization of critical digital literacy
This article provides a novel perspective for media literacy research by proposing a theoretical framework for researching how critical digital literacy, based on constructing and deploying utopian/dystopian imaginaries of society in the digital age, facilitates civic engagement

Summary

Introduction

Understood as the ability to access, evaluate and produce media content, is crucial to a well-informed citizenry’s participation in society. Conceptualizing critical digital literacy as incorporating utopian thinking, as framed above, has the potential to facilitate richer analysis of whether and how critical digital literacy contributes to civic engagement Such an approach sheds light on the ways in which users participate in civic life by constructing and deploying, in line with different ideologies, utopian/dystopian imaginaries of society in the digital age. About whether and how Internet users draw on utopian thinking to understand and participate in society in the digital age, with a few exceptions that, as discussed below, can be found in media studies on social movements Mindful of these studies, this article proposes a framework for researching critical digital literacy within civic life in ways that incorporate utopianism/dystopianism, contributing, in turn, to media literacy research and practice. Intersection of dimensions 1–2 with the other critical (C) and functional (F) dimensions of digital literacy

Constructing imaginaries of the Internet

Deploying imaginaries of the Internet

Conclusion